Trivia: Sydney Pollack -- one of Meryl Streep's collaborators time and again -- once proclaimed her the most gifted film actress of the late 20th century. Most insiders would concur with this assessment. To avid moviegoers, she represents the essence of onscreen dramatic art. Like Hoffman (and De Niro), she demonstrates a transcendent ability to plunge into her characters and lose herself inside of them, transforming herself physically to meet the demands of her roles. A luminous blonde with nearly translucent pale skin, intelligent blue eyes, and an elegant facial bone structure, Streep sustains a fragile, fleeting beauty that allows her to travel the spectrum between earthily plain (Ironweed), and ethereally glamorous and radiant (Manhattan, Heartburn).Born June 22, 1949, in Summit, NJ, Streep took operatic voice lessons, and subsequently cultivated a fascination with acting while she attended Bernards High School. Upon graduation, Streep studied drama at Vassar, Dartmouth, and Yale, where she appeared in 30 to 40 productions with the Yale Repertory Theater. With a five-star education and years of collegiate stage work under her belt, Streep headed for the New York footlights and launched her off-Broadway career. Streep's performance in Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, for which she received a Tony nomination, constitutes a particularly strong theatrical highlight from this period. She made her television debut in Robert Markowitz's The Deadliest Season (1977). That year she also appeared onscreen for the first time in Fred Zinnmann's Julia (1977) as Anna Marie, opposite heavyweights Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hal Holbrook. The following year, Streep picked up an Emmy for her performance in Marvin J. Chomsky's miniseries Holocaust. She first teamed with De Niro in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978).Around this time, Streep became involved with the diminutive performer John Cazale, whom she met on the set of the Cimino film. Tragically, this marriage was ill-fated from day one, Cazale's frail body ridden with bone cancer. Forty-two at the time, he passed away in March 1978, nine months prior to the premiere of The Deer Hunter. Streep later wed Don Gummer, who was not associated with Hollywood in any capacity.Streep next appeared as Woody Allen's ruthless lesbian ex-wife in his elegiac comedy drama Manhattan (1979) and Alan Alda's Southern mistress in the scathing political satire The Seduction of Joe Tynan. Her shattering interpretation of the scarred and torn Joanna Kramer opposite Dustin Hoffman in Robert Benton's heartbreaking divorce saga Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1980 -- which she famously left on top of a toilet at the festivities -- alongside a plethora of L.A. Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, and Golden Globe Awards for the Allen, Benton, and Alda films.Streep continued her ascent over the next decade by establishing herself as Hollywood's top box-office draw and a critical darling. Her double performance in the innovative Karel Reisz/Harold Pinter triumph The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), her gut-wrenching interpretation of the titular Holocaust survivor in Alan J. Pakula's haunting adaptation Sophie's Choice (1982), and her thoughtful evocation of Karen Silkwood in Mike Nichols' drama Silkwood were highlights of the period. In the latter, she portrays a real-life victimized nuclear-plant worker who mysteriously disappears just prior to turning in crucial evidence against her employers.Streep's decision to headline Sydney Pollack's lush epic Out of Africa (1985), as Karen Blixen, sustained her reputation. She would go on over the next decade to appear in projects like but Ironweed, Heartburn, She-Devil, Postcards from the Edge, and Death Becomes Her. In 1994, she again surprised her fans when she appeared as a muscular expert whitewater rafter who must fight a raging river and two dangerous fugitives to save her family in the action thriller River Wild (1994). In interviews, she said she did the film because she wanted to have an adventure like Harrison Ford and to overcome a few of her own fears.Streep returned to the depth and multifacetedness of her early roles -- with much concomitant success -- when she took a more low-key role as a dowdy, Earthbound farm wife who finds Illicit love with an itinerant photographer (Clint Eastwood) in The Bridges of Madison County. Following the critical and commercial heights of Bridges, Streep picked up yet another Oscar nomination for her performance as a terminally ill wife and mother in Carl Franklin's One True Thing (1998).Streep then signed on to replace Madonna as the lead in 1999's Music of the Heart, tackling what outwardly appeared to be a cookbook Hollywood plot (a teacher on a mission to teach violin to a class of inner-city youth in Harlem) with absolute commitment, teaching herself to play the violin by practicing six hours a day for eight weeks. In the new millennium, Streep hit audiences with the back-to-back with lauded performances in Adaptation and The Hours, earning an Oscar nomination for the former and a Golden Globe nomination for the latter.On the heels of this success, Streep won an Emmy in 2004 for her participation in longtime friend and collaborator Mike Nichols' Angels in America mini-series. She soon afterward won even greater audience and critic approval for her biting role as a corporate and political conspirator in Jonathan Demme's remake of the 1962 thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Streepfollowed this up with a part in the lighthearted comedies Prime, A Prairie Home Companion, and The Devil Wears Prada.In 2007 Streep starred in a pair of timely dramas about the Iraq War, Lions for Lambs and Rendition, before returning to the musical comedy milieu with 2008's Mamma Mia!. The adaptation of the smash stage musical shattered box-office records, becoming the highest grossing film in the history of the United Kingdom, and the biggest American hit of her illustrious career. She followed that up with the lead role in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award-winning play Doubt, a performance that earned her fifteenth acting nomination from the Academy, as well as nods from the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press.The renowned actress was nominated yet again for the Academy Award and the Screen Actors Guild the following year for her turn as Julia Child in the comedy Julie & Julia, a role that also garnered her a win for Best Actress from the New York Film Critics as well as the Golden Globes. That same year she played the lead for Nancy Myers in the box office hit It's Complicated, only to dive directly back into the Oscar spotlight again the next year with her acclaimed performance as English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2012's The Iron Lady. The role garnered Streep her 17th Academy Award nomination -- resulting in her third win, this time for Best Actress, in addition to Best Actress wins from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Golden Globes. She was back in the Oscar race in 2014, securing yet another nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work as the wicked witch in Rob Marshall's big-screen adaptation of the musical Into the Woods.

Trivia: An actress with a knack for light comedy, Amy Adams was born in Italy and raised in Castle Rock, Colorado. After high school, she studied dance and worked in regional dinner theater until age 20, when she moved to Minnesota with her family after being spotted by a visiting Minneapolis producer and recruited to work in his dinner theater there. She landed her first film role in the satiric 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was, appropriately enough, set in Minnesota. After appearing in the independent comedy Psycho Beach Party, Adams made guest appearances on a number of television series, including That 70s Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The West Wing; she was also cast as a regular in Manchester Prep, a TV spin-off of the hit film Cruel Intentions. Manchester Prep, however, was never aired when its network decided that the show's sexual content was too strong for television, although several episodes were eventually re-edited into a direct-to-video feature entitled Cruel Intentions 2. 2002 proved to be a very busy year for Adams, who appeared in no fewer than four features, including the eagerly anticipated Catch Me if You Can, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.Adams took a 2 year break following Catch Me If You Can, reemerging in 2004 to appear with Fred Savage in the low-key comedy/drama The Last Run. The next year she took a substantial role in the romantic comedy The Wedding Date, but the part that proved to be a career-shaping one was the very innocent, very pregnant Ashley in Phil Morrison's independent film Junebug. Adams was adored by audiences and praised by critics for her quirky, sensitive performance, and she netted a Best Supporting Actress nomination in the process.The young actress rounded out 2005 with a brief series of regular appearances on the wildly popular TV comedy The Office. In 2006 Amy co-starred in the NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, alongside Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen. 2007 provided a big boost to her lead-actress stock in the form of Disney's Enchanted, a Splash-like confection in which Adams played a fairytale princess inadvertently plopped into the alternate universe of modern-day New York City. The family-friendly Thanksgiving release racked up considerable praise and millions of box-office dollars. Adams picked up her second Academy Award nomination in 2008 for her work in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award winning play Doubt. In addition to that honor, she scored nods from the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press. The following year, Adams teamed with Doubt star Meryl Streep again, to play a young amateur chef who attempts to cook every recipe in a massive cookbook by Julia Child (Streep) in the Nora Ephron-directed Julie and Julia.The following year, Adams played the romantic interest of Mark Wahlberg in the Oscar contender The Fighter, earning tremendous critical acclaim both for her tough performance and spot-on Boston accent. Then in 2011, Adams teamed up with funnyman Jason Segel for a much anticipated relaunching of Jim Henson's beloved Muppets franchise. In 2012 she played the controlling wife of a cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama The Master, and captured her fourth Best Supporting Actress nomination in just eight years for her work in that film. In 2013 she took on the legendary part of Lois Lane in the Superman reboot Man of Steel.

Trivia: A character-oriented actor who specialized in playing American everymen, Chris Messina emerged in the mid-'90s, landing guest appearances on series programs such as Law & Order and mounting supporting parts in Hollywood features including You've Got Mail and Rounders (both 1998). Messina gained even more exposure when he joined the cast of the quirky HBO comedy drama Six Feet Under during that program's fifth and final season. On that series, Messina played Ted Fairwell, a Republican attorney smitten with Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose) who (as the program reveals) will eventually marry her. After Six Feet wrapped, Messina hearkened back to feature portrayals, this time as a lead, in director Jennifer Westfeldt's (Kissing Jessica Stein) critically praised sophomore effort Ira & Abby (2006). The actor proved he could hold his own with a multilayered turn as a neurotic therapist's son who rushes headlong into marriage only to watch his confidence fall to pieces when he learns of his new wife's two ex-husbands. In 2008, Messina took on a supporting role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson. In the years to come, Messina would enjoy continued success as an established actor, appearing in films like Ruby Sparks and Argo, as well as on TV series like The Mindy Project and The Newsroom.

Trivia: Like many another contemporary movie and TV favorite, Stanley Tucci is a graduate of the drama department at SUNY-Purchase. Tucci made his film bow in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, after which he specialized in playing lowlifes and scuzzbags, despite his offscreen credentials as a loyal friend and loving family man. Some of his more memorable appearances were as Rick Pinzolo in TV's Wiseguy (1987-1989), a minor-league thug named Vernon in Beethoven (1992), and a Middle-Eastern assassin in The Pelican Brief (1993). Tucci acquired a fan following of sorts for his slimy year-long role of Richard Cross on the weekly TV series Murder One (1995).In 1996, Tucci broke loose from his established screen persona by playing an ambitious Italian-American restaurateur in Big Night, the most delightfully "gastronomic" film since Like Water for Chocolate. The art-house favorite was a sheer labor of love for Tucci, who served as its producer, co-wrote its script with his cousin Joe Tropiano, and shared directorial duties with his friend Campbell Scott. Tucci again directed two years later with The Impostors, a farcical comedy that cast him and longtime friend Oliver Platt as two stowaways on an ocean liner. Unlike Big Night, however, the film did not do well with audiences or critics. After starring in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1998) as Puck and In Too Deep (1999) as a police supervisor, Tucci again stepped behind the camera, this time to direct Joe Gould's Secret (2000). A historical drama about an eccentric man (Ian Holm) living on the streets of Greenwich Village, it received a very enthusiastic reception at the 2000 Sundance Festival, where it premiered. The early 2000s seemed to be a winning period for the versatile actor, with Tucci also taking home the Best Supporting Actor in a television movie award for his role in Conspiracy (2001). That same year he appeared in America's Sweethearts as an intense movie mogul. He continued doing solid work even when the finished films were sometimes lacking. He played in the Jennifer Lopez hit Maid in Manhattan, Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition, the American remake of Shall We Dance?, and landed his largest role in a major Hollywood production when Steven Spielberg cast him as the ambitious, officious manager of The Terminal. Tucci lent his voice to the animated film Robots in 2005, and the next year earned solid notices for his work as a fashion magazine editor loyal to the diva editor in chief Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.The highly-respected character actor continued to work steadily in a variety of projects, but a pair of high-profile supporting roles in 2009 earned him strong reviews and awards consideration. As the husband to Julia Child in Julie & Julia, Tucci got to work opposite Meryl Streep yet again in another box-office hit, but it was his creepy turn as a child killer in the big screen adaptation of The Lovely Bones that earned him Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations.In 2010 he appeared opposite Cher in Burlesque, and was a loving father in the sleeper hit Easy A. In 2012, Tucci was cast as the announcer and emcee Caesar Flickman in the hit adaptation of the smash novel The Hunger Games. Tucci continued to be a work horse, appearing in seven films in 2014, including Transformers: Age of Extinction and a cameo in Muppets Most Wanted.

Trivia: With a quiet exterior and a unique array of facial expressions that hint at something hilarious simmering beneath the surface, actress/comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub, born June 22nd, 1971, has come a long way since joining the cast of Mr. Show back in 1995. Born in Detroit, Michigan on June 22nd, 1971, Rajskub's entry into the comedy scene wasn't entirely intentional, the former performance artist decided to try her hand at humor when a non-comedic performance at the San Francisco Art Institute elicited unexpected laughs from the audience. Subsequently realizing the absurdity inherent in overly serious performance art, Rajskub soon adjusted her act to become a parody of performance art. The unique take on live comedy quickly caught on with audiences, and shortly thereafter, Rajskub was approached by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross and asked to join the cast of their upcoming HBO stream-of-consciousness comedy series Mr. Show. A somewhat bitter falling out with series co-creator Cross found Rajskub departing from the series after a year to take a job at Seattle's Best Coffee, but her career as a caffeine dealer would quickly come to an end when Garry Shandling caught wind of her act. Subsequently cast as the enthusiastic but somewhat awkward talent booker on The Larry Sanders Show, Rajskub also began to branch out into feature territory with supporting roles in such films as Bury Me in Kern County and the mockumentary The Thin Pink Line (both 1998). Blink-and-you'll-miss-her roles in such high-profile releases as Man on the Moon and Road Trip were quick to follow, with a small but memorable turn as a bubble-wrapped cult member in Dude, Where's My Car? preceding yet another fleeting appearance in the "Fiction" segment of director Todd Solondz's Storytelling. By this point, Rajskub had expanded her presence on television with a recurring role in Veronica's Closet, and after appearing with Girls Guitar Club bandmate Karen Kilgariff in the independent drama The Anniversary Party, she made a move back to the small screen with the ill-fated sketch comedy series The Downer Channel. If that series didn't last long, Rajskub didn't need to worry since appearances in such features as Punch-Drunk Love, Sweet Home Alabama, and Legally Blonde 2 found her slowly drifting toward more substantial roles on the silver screen. After becoming a frequent player in the 2003-2004 season of the wildly popular television series 24, Rajskub took an ominous turn with her role as Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in the 2004 made-for-television remake Helter Skelter.In 2006 she took on supporting roles in the Academy Award winning comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine, and director Christine Jeffs slice-of-life comedy drama Sunshine Cleaning. The continued to deliver solid supporting performances in 2008's Julie & Julia, and 2011's Safety Not Guaranteed.

Trivia: Writer, actress, and comedian Jane Lynch is a slim six-feet-tall and usually wears her blonde hair cropped in a pixie cut. Born in Illinois, she went to a public university and got her M.F.A. in theater from Cornell. Her extensive theater background involved touring with the Second City comedy troupe and playing Carol Brady in The Real Live Brady Bunch. She also wrote and starred in the award-winning play Oh Sister, My Sister. Originally produced in 1998, the play kicked off the Lesbians in Theater program at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in 2004. Lynch's other stage credits include Tales of the Lost Formicans, Ennui, and Waiting for Iggy. She made her film debut in 1988 with a small role in the body-switching comedy Vice Versa. On television, she was in the Lifetime movie In the Best Interest of the Children and made numerous guest appearances on sitcoms. After some meager roles in Straight Talk, The Fugitive, and Fatal Instinct, she had the good fortune to join Christopher Guest's gang of improvisational comic actors. Her breakthrough role was butch Christy Cummings, the personal dog handler to trophy wife Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) in the 2000 mockumentary Best in Show. Over the next two years, she played a government agent in the action movie Collateral Damage, a sarcastic nurse in the ABC medical comedy MDs, and a 1940s-style receptionist in the TNT movie The Big Time. In 2003, she reunited with the cast from Best in Show for the musical spoof A Mighty Wind. She performed her own music in the role of Laurie Bohner, the former porn star and member of the New Main Street Singers. In 2004, Lynch appeared in Sleepover, Little Black Boot, and The Californians. Over the course of the next few years, Lynch remained one of the comedy world's best kept secrets while getting steady work in film and television. But that secret wouldn't be kept for long, because in 2009, after essaying a recurring role on the hit Showtime series The L Word, Lynch made a major impression on television viewers as villainous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on the hit musical series Glee -- a role for which she was awarded both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: Brooklyn, NY, native Vanessa Ferlito grew up amid somewhat challenging circumstances as an only child (the daughter of two Italian-American hair salon owners) whose father died before she reached the age of three. She developed acting aspirations early in life and broke into the entertainment business via television, with guest spots and recurring roles on crime-themed series programs including CSI: New York and The Sopranos -- where her unmistakably ethnic, weathered but voluptuous look lent her time and again to effective portrayals of molls, mistresses, and other gritty urban female types. She landed her most prominent early feature roles in Spider-Man 2 (as a co-star in Mary Jane's play) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof segment of the 2007 two-episode omnibus Grindhouse (as one of the low-down women stalked and murdered by Kurt Russell's psychopath Stuntman Mike). After the Tarantino project, Ferlito joined co-stars Debra Messing and Alfred Molina for the gentle comedy Nothing Like the Holidays and worked with Tyler Perry on the farce Madea Goes to Jail (2009).

Trivia: A comedienne who got her start with a brief tenure on NBC's Saturday Night Live, actress-cum-playwright Casey Wilson laid claim to a prestigious educational pedigree that included enrollment at New York University's Tisch School for the Arts and further study at the exclusive Stella Adler School of Acting. She then teamed up with fellow comedy writer June Diane Raphael to co-author a sellout two-woman show, Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, at Manhattan's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. The production ran for 11 months, made the Aspen Comedy and Arts Festival, and won the covetable ECNY award for Best Comedic Duo for its two creators; it also drew the attention of SNL, and executive producer Lorne Michaels recruited Wilson as one of the program's in-house performers in 2008. By that point, Wilson had already branched out into feature-film activity, with small roles in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration (2006) and Bob Odenkirk's The Brothers Solomon (2007); she and Raphael subsequently authored the script for the comedy Bride Wars, co-starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. In 2008, Wilson held a small role opposite John Malkovich and Colin Hanks in the showbiz drama The Great Buck Howard. She went on to appear in Julie & Julia, Killers, and Freak Dance. WIlson played the perpetually lovelorn Penny Hartz on ABC sitcom Happy Endings for three seasons before the critical darling was cancelled in 2013. She quickly rebounded with another sitcom, NBC's Marry Me, in 2014; unfortunately, the show was cancelled after only one season.

Trivia: Frances Sternhagen was still in her teens when she made her first professional stage appearance as the thirtyish Laura in a 1948 summer-stock production of The Glass Menagerie. After graduating from Vassar with a BA degree in drama, Frances attended the Perry-Mansfield School of the Theatre and New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. She briefly worked as a teacher at Massachussett's Milton Academy before her off-Broadway debut as Juliette in Girardoux' Thieves' Carnival--one of the last times that this dynamic character actress would ever portray a flighty ingenue. She went on to spend several seasons at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Back in New York, Sternhagen won two Obie Awards for her performances in Admirable Bashville and The New Pinter Plays, and in 1973 received the Tony Award for her multiple characterizations in Neil Simon's Good Doctor 1973. She followed this personal triumph by creating two of her all-time favorite stage roles: Dora in Equus (1974) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond (1979). Launching her film career in 1967, Sternhagen has been seen in an exhausting variety of movie roles; among the best of these was no-nonsense Dr. Marion Lazarus in Outland (1982), matching wits and witticisms with outer-space peacekeeper Sean Connery. On television, Frances Sternhagen enjoyed sizable roles on such daytime dramas as Love of Life, One Life to Live, Secret Storm, and was seen on a regular basis in the prime-time series Spencer (1985, as Millie Sprague), Stephen King's the Golden Years (1991, as Gina Williams) and The Road Home (1994, as Charlotte Babineaux).

Trivia: Sheffer is his wife's maiden name, which he took after they married. Hobbies include carpentry, hiking and camping. Avid fan of European soccer, with his favorite team being the Tottenham Hotspur. Favorite NFL team is the San Francisco 49ers. Favorite college-football team is the University of Alabama. Played a gay doctor on the daytime soap, As the World Turns. He enjoyed the role of Reid Oliver, and took the attitude that "if we are going to do this, then let's do this! Let's show two men dating, and falling in love, and wherever it goes." Involved in fund-raising for Doctors Without Borders. Acting idols are Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp and Daniel Day Lewis.

Trivia: Deborah Rush performs in theater, feature films, and on television. In film, she has worked with a number of respected directors, including Woody Allen, John Schlesinger, Blake Edwards, and Sidney Lumet. Born in Chatham, NJ, Rush's interest in performing began in childhood, when she wrote and starred in a play about the founder of the Sisters of Charity. Following graduation from high school, Rush joined the Playhouse of the Ridiculous comedy troupe and this paved the way to her career in New York. There, she frequently appeared in Shakespeare in the Park productions, often working alongside the likes of such stars as Raul Julia and Meryl Streep. For her portrayal of Brooke in a Broadway production of Noises Off, Rush received a Tony nomination. On television, she has guest starred on numerous programs and has had regular roles on a few series, notably the ABC sitcom Spin City, where she briefly played the Mayor's busy wife. Rush made her feature film debut in Oliver's Story (1978). Her subsequent film roles include A Night in Heaven (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), My Blue Heaven (1990), and In and Out (1997).

Trivia: Actress Felicity Jones paid her dues as a teenager, playing a recurring character on the low-budget U.K. fantasy series The Worst Witch. Her next big break would be a TV role, as well, but part of Zoe Brogan on the drama Cape Wrath would come with considerably more prestige. Jones then branched out with a part in the 2008 of the novel Brideshead Revisited and a prominent role in the 2009 Stephen Frears film Chéri. Jones co-starred in the well-received romantic drama Like Crazy, and scored her first Oscar nomination for her work in 2014's The Theory of Everything playing the wife of celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking.

Trivia: Named after Robert Culp's character in I Spy. As a child, appeared in a political ad for his father's campaign for Congress. First performed in a play during elementary school as Captain Corcoran in John Eaton's production of H.M.S. Pinafore. In 2005, played Octavius in the Broadway production of Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington as Brutus. Played a lead C.I.A. operative in J.T. Rogers' Blood and Gifts at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2012. In 2015, played the role of Fred in Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Of Good Stock.

Trivia: University of Tulsa graduate Mary Kay Place hightailed it to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a writer and performer of comedy material. She was hired for 1970s The Tim Conway Comedy Hour as a production assistant to both star Conway and producer Norman Lear. It was Conway who gave her her first on-camera break, while Lear saw to it that Place received her first writing credit on his subsequent All in the Family. Lear displayed her to even better advantage in the role of senseless, tactless, and eminently lovable would-be C&W star Loretta Haggers on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-1977). She won an Emmy for her work as Loretta, and was later nominated for a Grammy for her spin-off musical album, Tonight! At the Capri Lounge...Loretta Haggers. She wrote scripts for such TV sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis, and MASH, usually in collaboration with her professional partner (and future Designing Women producer), Linda Bloodworth. In films since 1976's Bound for Glory, Place has only occasionally been given a chance to shine on the big screen; the best of her movie roles include the washout nightclub singer who briefly replaces Liza Minnelli in New York, New York (1976), and the reconstituted "child of the '60s" who eagerly volunteers for surrogate motherhood in The Big Chill (1983). Place then continued to work on a variety of projects throughout the 80's and 90's, playing family friend Camille Chersky on the tragically-cancelled dramatic series My So-Called Life, and directing episodes of TV shows like Friends and Arli$$. With the new millennium, Place turned once again towards the big screen, enjoying appearances in films like Being John Malkovich and Girl, Interrupted, but she continued to work in TV as well, with a recurring role on the Showtime series Big Love -- which earned her an Ammy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress on a Drama Series in 2010.

Trivia: The daughter of author/screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley. She first made her mark as humorist, satirist, and dead-on parodist in book form (Crazy Salad) and in magazine articles. Ephron's first movie assignment was the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Silkwood (1983). Her stormy marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein provided grist for her roman a clef Heartburn, which she adapted into an uneven 1986 film directed by Mike Nichols Ephron struck gold with her script for the blockbuster When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and kept turning out work in the romantic comedy vein until her death. After a few so-so writing and producing assignments, she made her directing bow with This Is My Life (1992), which she co-wrote with sister Delia Ephron. She then served as director and writer of Sleepless in Seattle, one of the highest-grossing releases of 1993. Five years later, she re-teamed with Sleepless stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for You've Got Mail; another New York-based romantic comedy, it was one of the most successful films of 1998. The following year, Ephron and sister Delia collaborated on Hanging Up, a comedy-drama based on a novel of Delia's. The story of three sisters who pull together to cope with the imminent death of their father (Walter Matthau), it starred Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, and Lisa Kudrow. She then had a pair of lackluster directorial outings with Lucky Numbers and a big-screen meta remake of the supernatural sitcom Bewitched. But her 2009 film Julie & Julia - which Ephron scripted, directed and produced - was a box office hit and earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Ephron passed away on June 26, 2012 after a lengthy battle with leukemia.